


come with me, my love (to the sea of love)

by petitepeach



Category: SKAM (France)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, as usual, featuring some oceanic pals, they're in love etc etc
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-30
Updated: 2019-07-30
Packaged: 2020-07-27 11:42:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20045425
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/petitepeach/pseuds/petitepeach
Summary: there’s a small touch of wonder to everything that lives in the oceanfor the 75 dates prompt,aquarium





	come with me, my love (to the sea of love)

Lucas complains when Eliott pulls him out of bed early to go out for breakfast, keeps complaining until Eliott is able to get some coffee in him, Lucas clutching at the paper cup like it’s a life preserver and the city streets the ocean, the humid air around them thick and salty as sea water.

“It’s so _hot_,” Lucas groans. “And it’s not even 10 a.m. This is terrible.” He takes a step behind Eliott, following him so closely that he’d be stepping in Eliott’s footprints if they were on a beach. “I’m gonna stand in your shadow, okay? I’m stealing your shade.”

Eliott laughs, reaching back to grasp onto Lucas’s hand, tugging him towards the entrance to the metro. “Come on. It will be better underground.”

It’s not really better underground. The air down there is stifling, static, the only breeze rolling in with the incoming and outgoing trains. It’s the middle of the week, a Wednesday, so the metro station is filled by late work commuters: men with their blazers hanging off of their arms, leaning against tiled walls and wiping their foreheads; women tying their hair up off their necks, fanning themselves with newspapers. It looks like they’re all moving in slow motion to Eliott, like there’s a liquid quality about them—candles melting in the heat, dissolving into puddles the floor.

He thinks about drawing it, a room full of candles burning at different speeds. It’s odd, the image it makes in his head; fanciful, like _La Belle et le Bȇte_, but somehow, it’s also sad. Melancholic.

Eliott turns to Lucas to tell him about it, and it’s a small thing, to tell Lucas what’s going on inside his head without hesitation, but it’s also kind of a big thing. Because, Eliott realizes as his eyes catch on the curve of Lucas’s nose, the pout of his lips, he’s never really had that with anyone before.

He started policing himself around Lucille months before they broke up. It was only one time, just one time when he knew Lucille was tired and stressed, but he’d said something a bit silly, something a bit whimsical, and she’d sighed and snapped, _Eliott, I really don’t care._

She’d apologized for it later, but for Eliott, who was all too aware that he was already a burden, it stuck. It stuck and he began to cut himself off in the middle of a story, voice quieting to silence halfway through a sentence.

Lucille never noticed. Or at least, she never said anything about it, and Eliott thought that was going to be him, his life—creating a watered-down version of himself that’s more palatable, easier to live with.

But then Lucas came. Lucas, who laughs at Eliott’s jokes and remembers what foods he likes and listens. He always listens. Just the other night Eliott had been telling a long-winded story about something that happened to him at the grocery store, and he stopped talking when he thought it was getting boring, but Lucas had turned from where he was making pasta at the stove and asked, _What happened next?_

And now, now when they’re standing inside the melting metro station, holding hands despite how their palms are both slick with sweat, Lucas looks up at Eliott, and he must see something on his face because he smiles and he says, so softly, “What are you thinking about?”

Eliott swallows, and he wants to say _you_, but that’s nothing new. He’s always thinking about Lucas, always always, so instead he tells him about the people melting like candles.

Lucas’s smile widens, and he glances over his shoulder to where there’s a man in a business suit loosening his tie, his shirt damp under the arms.

“I think you’re right,” Lucas says. “Or they could be glaciers melting into the arctic sea.”

Eliott bobs his head in agreement—_that’s true, it's this whole world isn't it_—and Lucas turns back to Eliott, stands on his toes to kiss his cheek.

“I like the way you see things,” he whispers into Eliott’s ear.

And Eliott too, melts.

Lucas is pulling away, falling back onto his heels, but Eliott follows him, cups Lucas’s cheeks in his hands and kisses him once. Then again, lingering. Lucas tastes like coffee and pastries and his lips are soft and Eliott is diving in for one more, thinking about biting down on Lucas’s bottom lip, turning it from pale pink to cherry red, but Lucas gently pushes him away.

“_Eliott_.” He laughs. His cheeks are flushed, and it could be from the heat but it could also be from the kiss and Eliott wants to press his lips to those high spots of colour. “Stop it,” Lucas says, but it’s coupled with a pleased, embarrassed smile.

“Sorry.” Eliott says without a lick of sincerity. Lucas swats at his arm, but he’s still laughing, so Eliott counts it as a win.

A train rolls into the station, a westbound, and the melted wax people peel themselves off of the wall and benches and pile on, sucking in a collective breath at the heat packed into the tiny metal cars.

“Come on.” Eliott pulls Lucas by the hand, and Lucas looks up at the destination on the front of the train, frowning.

“What are you doing?” He asks as they enter the car, the doors shutting behind them. “We’re on the wrong side of the tracks—this isn’t the way to yours.”

Eliott shrugs, tries to make it casual. “We’re going somewhere.” He grabs onto one of the metal poles at the centre of the car, swaying as the train lurches forward, using his grip on Lucas’s hand to tug him to his side.

Lucas squints at him, suspicious, his hand gripping onto the pole underneath Eliott’s. “Where? Where could we be going at 9:30 in the morning?”

“You’ll see.”

“I don’t like surprises.”

That is a blatant lie. “Yes you do.”

“I only like certain surprises.” Lucas amends.

“You’ll like this one,” Eliott says, with far more confidence than he feels. He thinks—he’s pretty sure—Lucas is going to like it, because Lucas mentioned it last week, how he wants to go to the aquarium to see the sharks and the rays.

Eliott knew as soon as Lucas said it that he wanted to take him. He waited until he was alone before he went online to check prices, and waited until the next morning to call the aquarium’s customer service desk when he saw tickets had to be reserved for particular days.

_It’s a surprise for my boyfriend_, he told the woman on the phone. _I don’t know if he’ll like it as much if there’s an entire summer camp there at the same time._

The woman had laughed, and when she spoke, her voice was warm. _Come on a weekday, like a Tuesday or Wednesday. We open at 10, but we don’t get large groups until the afternoon. Before lunch, it should be relatively quiet._

_Okay_, Eliott said. _Thank you._

_Is it for an anniversary?_ The woman asked. _Is it his birthday?_

_No, no. I…I just wanted to do something nice for him._

That was all Eliott had been thinking, when he went hunting for tickets. He’d been thinking about Lucas, about how he makes Eliott breakfast all the time and picks Eliott up from work and always listens to Eliott when he talks. He’s infinitely patient with Eliott, so caring it makes his heart ache.

Lucas does so much for him, without even realizing it.

And Eliott tries to do little things for Lucas to show him he loves him. He surprises him with lunch at work, draws him little portraits, finds beautiful quotes in books and writes them out on sticky notes, leaving them around Lucas’s bedroom for him to find.

But these are all things Eliott likes doing as well. He likes being romantic. He likes being in love. So from time to time, he strives to find something to do that’s just for Lucas. Something that will let him know Eliott is always listening to him too.

“Fine.” Lucas huffs, turning his head to stare out the car’s windows, to the opaque blackness of the tunnel, their reflections warped in the glass. “But if you’re bringing me to an art gallery, I’d like another coffee. An iced one.”

“It’s not an art gallery.”

Lucas just raises his eyebrows.

“It’s something you’ll like. I swear.” Eliott tries to take the nerves, the little bit of pleading out of his voice. There’s no reason Lucas won’t like it. There’s no reason.

“Well.” Lucas drawls, putting on an annoyed front, but his hand slides up the pole, his fingers dancing over Eliott’s knuckles. “It better be good, Demaury. Your boyfriend has high standards, you know.”

Eliott snorts. “My boyfriend also eats peanut butter out of the jar with a spoon.”

“Fucking hell, how many times do I have to say it, literally _everyone_ does that.”

The ride is short, only fifteen minutes or so, the commuters slowly disappearing and becoming replaced with a sea of tourists that smell like sunscreen and stress and weave a muddled tapestry of languages that sails over Eliott and Lucas’s heads.

They exit at Trocadéro, the bursting car exhaling passengers into the station before inhaling another round bound for the outskirts of the city. Lucas is staring at Eliott suspiciously again, is telling him, "Eliott, if you’ve brought me to the Eiffel Tower I’m going to break up with you."

Eliott just laughs, and tugs Lucas out from the metro into the blinding sunshine.

Lucas doesn’t get it until they’re right in front of the building, too busy pestering Eliott with questions about where they’re going, ribbing him about thinking the Eiffel Tower is _actually_ a romantic place to go.

“I’m just saying,” Lucas laughs, dodging a gentle swipe from Eliott, “there’s no way in hell I’ll ever propose to you there.”

Eliott’s hand freezes in the air.

_Propose._

Lucas seems to grasp onto the weight of the word the same time Eliott does, because he laughs nervously and turns away. “I mean…are we going to swim in the fountain? Is that it? Because I’ll tell you the amount of germs that must be in there—”

“The aquarium.” Eliott says, stopping, pointing to the sign above the entrance, stating the obvious because he doesn’t want to say the other thing, which is, _Lucas you could ask me to marry you anywhere, literally any place, and I’d say yes._

Obviously not right now. They’re both so young, and Eliott might be romantic but he also still has a shred of common sense. Not now. But…someday. If Lucas still wants to be with him.

Lucas whips around towards Eliott, following where he’s pointing to, his eyes wide when they land on the building’s sign.

“What?”

“The aquarium.” Eliott points again. “I got us tickets to the shark thing.”

“You _what_?”

Eliott keeps pointing because he’s not sure what else to do.

“I got us tickets. They get us into the shark thing but also the rest of the aquarium, like the rays too, there’s even a place you can pet them, and it’s less busy in the morning, so…” He licks his lips. “I thought you said you wanted to go?”

Lucas shakes his head.

Eliott’s brows furrow. “You don’t want to go?”

“Oh my god, no—” And it’s only a second before Lucas is barrelling into him, Eliott stumbling back a step with the impact, his arms going around Lucas’s waist to hold him up. He takes another step, Lucas’s momentum propelling them around in a circle.

Lucas is laughing into Eliott’s ear, bright, loud, beautiful.

Eliott presses a grin into the side of Lucas’s neck, slowly lowering his feet back to the pavement.

“Eliott. _Eliott._” Lucas slaps at Eliott’s chest, bouncing on his toes excitedly. “Oh my god, this is the best thing you’ve ever done.”

Lucas is glowing from the inside out, happiness radiating from his every pore, and the longer Eliott looks at him, the more he thinks, _yeah, this actually might be the best thing I’ve ever done._

But he just shrugs, ducks his head, shy from the way Lucas is looking at him, from how beautiful he is. “It was nothing.”

“Nothing? Please.” Lucas wraps Eliott into a hug, pressing the sides of their faces together. Eliott is aware they’re standing on the edge of the busiest park in Paris, is aware of a few curious gazes on them, but he just buries his nose in Lucas’s hair, smiles, and shuts his eyes. “Thank you. You’re the best boyfriend in the universe.”

“You’re welcome.” Eliott whispers into his temple, a rush of relief coursing through his body that’s so powerful it makes him lightheaded.

Lucas suddenly pulls back, looking concerned. “I didn’t forget an anniversary, did I?”

“No.”

Lucas murmurs to himself, “Did I forget my own birthday?”

Eliott giggles and pulls Lucas close again, smacking a kiss to his temple and leading him towards the entrance. “There’s no occasion or anything. I wanted to do something nice for you. Just because.”

“Oh.”

Lucas looks quietly shocked as they pass through the glass doors, blasts of cold air hitting them as soon as they’re inside, and Eliott thinks this really is the best thing he’s ever done, because there’s Lucas, speechless and happy at the same time, because Eliott did something nice for him for no reason at all. Because Lucas never expects anything like that.

It makes Eliott want to do things like this all the time.

It’s only a minute after 10, but there are people already inside as Eliott gets their tickets scanned—some couples holding hands, a few families, a group of young women sharing a giant water bottle. But other than that, the place is pretty well empty.

Lucas can barely contain himself. He drags Eliott to the shark tunnel right away, practically sprinting to the entrance to butt ahead of another couple, and Eliott is laughing, happy to follow, happy to let Lucas’s joy guide him, carry him away like the tide.

He’s never been to the Paris aquarium either, so he has no idea what to expect when they turn a corner, and are met with a large glass tank housing dozens of different sea creatures: colourful coral and brightly-patterned fish, and sharks. Lucas makes an excited noise and keeps pulling Eliott along, until they’re right up to the glass, close enough that they could press their faces to it.

He slaps Eliott in the arm as two large sharks swim by. “Look!” He yells, startling a child standing near them. “Eliott, look! They're so _fucking_ cool!” The startled child’s mother shoots Lucas a disapproving look, but he ignores it.

Eliott does look, because they are cool, and it’s oddly soothing to watch the elegant way the sharks cut through the water, slick muscled tails moving from side to side with controlled power. It’s captivating, but what’s more captivating is Lucas’s face as he watches the sharks swim, the pure happiness painting his features in coral pinks and oceanic blues.

Not for the first time that day, Eliott looks at Lucas and thinks, _I love you._

“If I lived in the ocean, I’d want to be a shark.” Lucas says, eyes still fixed on the glass. “Imagine: you’re one of the fastest, most dangerous things in the ocean. It’d be sick.”

Eliott hums, coming up behind him and running his hands up Lucas’s sides, placing his chin on top of Lucas’s head. “I think I’d be an octopus.”

Lucas says, “Well, you’re definitely handsy enough to be one,” and laughs when Eliott bites at his ear in retaliation.

Together, they watch one of the other sharks make a pass over their heads.

Eliott squeezes Lucas’s waist. “Sorry I won’t be a shark with you.”

“That’s fine.” Lucas tilts his head back to meet Eliott’s eyes. “We’re both still sea creatures, so.” He shrugs, the motion jostling Eliott’s hold on him. “That’s what matters.”

Eliott presses his forehead and Lucas’s temple and shuts his eyes, thinks about deep blue water and beige sand and an octopus, a brown one, maybe, with its tentacles and squishy head, crawling along the ocean floor. He thinks of a shark swimming overhead, keeping pace with it.

“So,” he murmurs, “Lucas and Eliott number 1389?”

“Yeah. They don’t do much, really, just swim around and eat stuff. But Shark Lucas protects Octopus Eliott from all the other mean things in the ocean.”

Eliott opens his eyes, tilts his head down to stare at Lucas’s profile. “Does he?”

“Of course.” Lucas says easily. “Always.”

Eliott can’t say anything, couldn’t possibly, but he nods. He presses a kiss to Lucas’s temple. _Always._

“Okay.” Lucas whispers. He gently knocks his head against Eliott’s. “I want to see the rays.”

They slowly follow the shark tunnel out, Lucas stopping their progress to take a video for his Instagram story, to force Eliott to pose for a selfie with him, the open, teeth-filled mouth of a shark over their heads while they both make terrified faces. He takes another picture of Eliott, his silhouette dark against the glass, and posts that one to Instagram with the caption, _the weirdest sea creature of all_.

When they emerge from the tunnel, there’s a hallway that continues onwards towards more exhibits, but Eliott points to a sign that says _The Ray Experience_ at the base of another path that slopes upwards. They follow it, to where the quiet dark of the shark tunnel turns to something bright, spacious, and loud, voices echoing off of a high glass ceiling.

They surface at the top of the tank, where the air is warm, thick and humid like they’re at a swimming pool. There’s a low concrete wall around the top of the tank, where there are children practically pushing their entire upper bodies over the ledge to touch the passing rays, their parents gripping onto their shirts to keep them from falling in.

There’s a man standing in the tank, wearing a wet suit and talking to the parents, occasionally taking handfuls out from a bucket off to the side and dropping bits of something into the water. He’s tall and tan, with long blonde hair slicked back on his head.

“Huh. He kinda looks like Aquaman.” Lucas says, and Eliott groans.

“Please don’t. I can’t stand to hear you start going on about that guy again.”

Lucas laughs. “I wasn’t that bad.” Eliott gives him a dubious look, and he throws his hands out. “What_ever_. Come on, I want to pet some rays.”

They pass some of the kids around the wall, Eliott’s eyes following a large ray that swims in lazy circles. It looks like a lagoon at the top, the water a lighter blue-green, some plants poking out of the surface. It’s shallow, the rays swimming along a flat, rocky surface, some diving down to where the rocks fall away to the deeper part of the tank.

He’s mesmerized by the large ray, how it seems to move so effortlessly through the water, bobbing and weaving around the others, barely moving it’s wings. They’re a little strange, the rays, with their beady eyes and gaping mouths. They’re a bit unsettling but also a bit beautiful, and Eliott understands why Lucas likes these creatures so much, why he’s so excited to see them. There’s a small touch of wonder to everything that lives in the ocean.

He’s quiet for a while, and Lucas misreads his silence for trepidation, turns back to him with a teasing grin fixed in place. “What, are you scared? Scared to touch the slimy fish?”

Eliott shakes his head. “I’m not scared.”

Lucas wiggles his eyebrows. “Are you sure?”

“I’m not scared.” Eliott repeats, but he’s smiling now, thinking of rainwater instead of saltwater, train tunnels instead of shark tunnels, a flashlight dancing across Lucas’s face.

“Whatever you say.” Lucas says easily. He stops at an empty spot along the wall, pressing himself up against it, folding his elbows onto the top.

He looks beautiful there, washed in the bright light coming in from the ceiling, his eyes focused on the rays swimming by, and Eliott fumbles for his phone in his pocket, wanting to take a picture of him, wanting, selfishly, to capture the moment for himself.

“That one’s called a spotted eagle ray.” A voice says, and Eliott’s head whips up to see the wetsuit man standing in front of Lucas, who’s bent over at the waist, his arm in the water up to his elbow. “Usually they’re a bit shy towards humans, preferring to stay in the deeper areas, but that one seems to like you.”

Lucas glances up at the man. “Really?”

The man nods. “I think you’ve made a friend.”

Lucas grins, and Eliott isn’t sure he likes the way the man is looking at Lucas, smiling fondly, eyes crinkling at the corners, but then Lucas glances back towards Eliott, whispers, _Eli look_, and he’s reaching out, grasping onto Eliott’s fingers in his own and tugging him forward, dipping their linked hands back into the water.

Eliott’s fingers touch something squishy and slippery, and he makes a surprised noise and Lucas is giggling into his ear and the ray is moving under their hands and it feels _so_ weird, it really does, but it’s also amazing. It’s amazing to be elbow-deep in warm salt water, to have a slippery, spotted sea creature brushing up against his fingertips, to watch it swim away from them in smooth, powerful motions, to have Lucas still laughing in his ear, all his teeth bared, the sound echoing off of the water, bouncing to the ceiling, washing over Eliott like a wave.

Amazing.

They wash their hands in the bathroom, Lucas scoffing when Eliott meets his eyes in the mirror and tells him the wetsuit man was flirting with him.

“He was not.” Lucas argues, hands flapping under the dryer. “It’s literally his job to be nice to people and to let them pet the rays.” He glances back to the mirror, and whatever he sees in Eliott’s face makes him frown. “Even if he was, Eliott, it wouldn’t mean a thing to me.”

Eliott shrugs from where he’s leaning against the bathroom wall, the pale peach tile cool against his back. He lets it go because Lucas is probably right, the guy was just doing his job, just being nice. He doesn’t like how it lingers in his mind sometimes, whenever he sees someone smile at Lucas in a particular way, or see someone blatantly flirt with him. It’s just more reminders that Lucas could be with someone else. Anyone else.

He knows Lucas doesn’t care about flirting with anyone else. He knows Lucas loves him. He knows Lucas wants to be with him. But sometimes he just needs a reminder to keep himself from sinking to cold depths of doubt.

“Hey.” Lucas says, leaving the dyer and walking towards Eliott until he’s stopped right in front of him, the toes of their sneakers touching. “Hey. Sweetheart.”

Eliott looks up from their toes and meets Lucas’s eyes, impossibly blue and pretty, soft like calm waves lapping at the shore. “What?”

Lucas reaches out, rubs his hands down Eliott’s arms. “There’s one more thing I want to see, if you’re up for it. It’s a room they have, back downstairs, and I think you might like it.”

“Yeah.” Eliott says. “Of course.”

Lucas leads him back down the stairs they came from, and takes a right, going past a room of games for children, past a small café that isn’t open yet, and straight through a hall with glass cases highlighting different kinds of coral.

They take a final left and Lucas stops, Eliott bumping into him at the sudden halt, thrown off by the the drastic change from the hallway to the room they’re standing at the entrance of.

He becomes aware of darkness and colour at the same time.

It’s pitch black inside the room except for soft swaths of neon light emanating from a glass wall, reflecting off of two mirrors on either side of it. The wall is narrow but tall, stretching up towards the ceiling, and on the other side the glass are dozens of jellyfish, slowly bobbing up and down in the water.

“Holy shit,” Eliott whispers.

“I know. I’ve been wanting to see this for ages.” Lucas says, smiling. He touches his hand to Eliott’s lower back. “Come on.”

Together, they walk up to the glass until they’re only a foot away from it. Eliott’s eyes travel from the top of the wall all the way down, to where a jellyfish floats right in front of him, it’s tentacles gently swaying underneath it’s translucent body. It’s so pretty, so ghostly, that it doesn’t even seem real.

“God, this is so cool.” Lucas murmurs.

Eliott nods. He can hear faint music playing from a corner of the room, something quiet and calming and for the moment, there’s no one else in the room apart from them. It feels like a dream, like if Eliott were to close his eyes, he’d be floating inside the tank with the jellyfish.

He thinks he might like that, spending his time floating, just floating along, letting the water carry him rather thank sinking into it.

He glances down at Lucas, and thinks, really, that’s what falling in love with him has always felt like: as easy and terrifying as slipping into the ocean, letting it caress him, trusting his body to be buoyant on its waters.

Eliott watches as the colours from the tank change on Lucas’s face, blue turning to purple turning to pink. _I love you._

As though he heard him think it, Lucas sinks into his side, sighing, his head going to Eliott’s shoulder and Eliott wraps an arm around him, pressing them more tightly together.

“Thank you,” Lucas says quietly. “Really, Eliott. You’re…” He giggles into Eliott’s chest. “You’re just the best person ever. I love you.”

“You’re welcome.” Eliott trails a hand down Lucas’s arm. “I love you,” He says, says it aloud because he really should be saying it every time he thinks it, even if Lucas gets sick of hearing it.

Another couple comes into the room, startling Eliott and Lucas out of their dream-like bubble, and they leave, but not before Eliott takes a picture of Lucas near the glass. It’s similar to the one Lucas took of him earlier, only Lucas’s dark silhouette visible against the tank, the jellyfish illuminated by pink light.

He posts it to his Instagram, captions it, _wonders of the world_.

A little more than a week later, Lucas wakes Eliott up early, gently nudging him until he blinks his eyes open, squinting against the pale sunlight just beginning to pour into Lucas’s window.

“What the hell are you doing up,” Eliott groans. “It’s Saturday.”

Lucas grins, and kisses Eliott once on the nose. “Get up. I made us breakfast to eat on the balcony.”

Eliott stretches his arms over his head. “What time is it?” He asks around a wide yawn.

“Not six yet.”

Eliott blinks at him.

Lucas shrugs from where he’s leaning over Eliott, hands pressed into the mattress on either side of his torso. “You said you wanted to have breakfast during sunrise.”

Eliott’s hands are still up around his head. “I…” He pauses. “I did say that.” It’s not that he doesn’t remember—he does, he remembers saying it to Lucas just yesterday, but he didn’t think anything would actually come from it.

“Well,” Lucas says, and Eliott can see his cheeks reddening and Lucas might actually be embarrassed by this, and Eliott is trying not to laugh, but it’s cute. Lucas is so cute. “It’s not a big deal, it’s just food and coffee and stuff.”

Eliott hums, bringing his arms back down to wrap them around Lucas’s neck. “You know,” he starts, “you don’t have to plan something for me just because I did something. I’m not expecting anything in return.”

Lucas sighs, lifting one of his hands to run his fingers through Eliott’s hair, then tracing down his cheek. “It’s not about having to.” He says quietly. “It’s to say thank you. Because you do so much for me. You don’t even realize.”

Eliott thinks of long-winded stories that reach their ends, of strange observations that are shared, of a gentle sea holding him up, never letting him sink, and he says, “It’s what we do for each other.”

Their foreheads press together, and they whisper it to one another, _I love you, I love you too._

They kiss, and Eliott can hear the sound of waves.

**Author's Note:**

> alright, i know aquariums, much like zoos, are not always great places
> 
> even an aquarium such as the ripley's aquarium in toronto (a major source of inspiration for this fic, esp. the jellyfish room), which is accredited by the association of zoos & aquariums (AZA), still keeps creatures such as sharks, rays, and sea turtles in a form of captivity. it's a tricky thing, something i'm personally very conflicted over, and it's something that has been debated over for a long time
> 
> but i adore sea creatures, and i adore elu, and it felt like a good fit - but you folks are always free to tell me otherwise
> 
> all of that being said, i hope you enjoyed the story 🧡 thank you so much for reading
> 
> and if you like, you can always come chat with me on tumblr [@lepetitepeach](https://lepetitepeach.tumblr.com)


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